Lead Backend Engineer

Summary

Join Pocket Worlds, a fast-growing company building social virtual worlds, as a Lead Backend Engineer. You will lead a small team, manage cloud infrastructure (AWS, Kubernetes, MongoDB), and contribute to a high-impact environment. This role requires extensive backend development and infrastructure management experience, expertise with Kubernetes, and a passion for building virtual universes. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced startup setting and values ownership and responsibility. Pocket Worlds offers competitive compensation, equity, equipment allowance, healthcare, 401k (US only), unlimited PTO, and an education stipend.

Requirements

• Have at least 10 years of experience in backend development and infrastructure management, with at least 4 of those in a senior+ role
• Have extensive experience managing infrastructure at scale, with proven success at delivering stability and performance
• Have experience with direct ownership of service orchestration with direct involvement in the documentation, support, deployment, observability and CI/CD pipelining
• Have experience leading small teams and being the stake holder with significant ownership and responsibilities
• Be an expert with owning and operating Kubernetes, preferably in AWS
• Have experience with and are comfortable working in a high-velocity startup environment
• Have experience supporting mission-critical applications at scale
• Have experience programming Python
• Love what you do. Your work is your passion, and you value working with people who share your values

Responsibilities

• Lead a small and elite team with lots of responsibilities and ownership
• Manage infrastructure at scale, delivering stability and performance
• Take direct ownership of service orchestration, including documentation, support, deployment, observability, and CI/CD pipelining

Preferred Qualifications

• Have experience programming in GO, C# or Lua
• Have experience with the Unity Gaming Engine
• Have experience orchestrating stateful applications such as game servers
• Have built any side projects or games outside of work or made significant open-source contributions
• Be a starter who loves to experiment and learn new things
• Be highly energetic and feel comfortable leading and pushing your team to succeed
• Be comfortable taking control of large systems with minimal documentation

Benefits

• Competitive Compensation
• Meaningful equity
• Equipment allowance
• Healthcare
• 401k (US only)
• Unlimited PTO
• Education/Training stipend